4 ms·

If I really wanted to, sure I could scrounge up the extra free time to pursue my ideas. But then my entire life would be my day job and my side project, at the

by city41 16y ago

If I really wanted to, sure I could scrounge up the extra free time to pursue my ideas. But then my entire life would be my day job and my side project, at the expense of absolutely everything else. There is nothing wrong with that if that is what is important to you. But I also value friendships, exercise, reading, relaxing, cooking, etc. A nice balanced life is crucial for good health and well being. I would argue for most people, the cost of completely throwing away all balance in your life would not match the reward that your product would bring once launched.

bry 16y ago
"Economically, you can think of a startup as a way to compress your whole working life into a few years. Instead of working at a low intensity for forty years, you work as hard as you possibly can for four. This pays especially well in technology, where you earn a premium for working fast." - Paul Graham http://www.paulgraham.com/wealth.html http://www.paulgraham.com/wealth.html
- mapleoin 16y ago
  It stops making sense economically if you consider the high risk of failure though.
  - mistermann 16y ago
    Exactly...one of my recent ventures was spending evenings and weekends for a few months building a prototype HR compensation system for a big company I had done consulting with for years, we had a very good relationship. All the requirements were met and the hard problems were solved (lots of UI work remained). When it came to decision time, they decided to develop in house instead of licensing my product for $50k. How much did they spend in house? $1 million plus (and counting). Plus, they missed their launch date so have to use the old solution for another year. I could have made the deadline easily. The point is, the risk of failure is not just that your product is not good enough, it is that the people that make the decisions are often, if not usually, simply not qualified to be serving in the positions they hold. Targeting individual consumers vs privately owned businesses vs publicly traded corporations are three entirely different situations. If I had to recommend one, I would target the privately owned business sector - there are less developers targeting this market (as it requires domain knowledge), and they actually care about ROI, whereas with a corporation, they are often more concerned about the appearance of ROI.
  - kranner 16y ago
    It's really only failure if you learn nothing and never try again.
    - city41 16y ago
      It's failure if the energy spent on the project is more than the return. Sure you may learn something, but if all you learned was to become a better web developer at the expense of relationships, physical health, your bank account, etc, then perhaps it would have been better to just create a casual, hobby webapp for fun.
      - kranner 16y ago
        We're probably thinking of very different things. By learning I meant learning every aspect of launching a startup, including customer development, sales, marketing, SEO, etc. If your role in the startup was limited to programming, then I'd take a very jaundiced view of the state of affairs. And by no means would sacrificing relationships and health compensate for even this.
- watty 16y ago
  That sounds wonderful but unfortunately doesn't apply to everyone.
squidsoup 16y ago
I think health, particularly mental health is certainly a very important consideration. As much as I want to work on my side project, giving up time with my family and recreational time would probably have some fairly negative consequences long term. Sometimes it feels like entrepreneurship is really only viable for the young and single.
- nsoonhui 16y ago
  I concur. I got a friend who went into entrepreneur on the side ended up with a broken relationship, estrangement with family members and no life beyond computer.
megablast 16y ago
Ok, so there is nothing you can cut out from your life? Watching tv, lunches, buses? There are all times you could be putting to better use. And there is no magic balance. There is no magic allotment of time you have to spend relaxing to be mentally well. It is all about how hard you push yourself, and how slack you are. Nobody is saying cut out the important things, but cut out the stupid things. But hey, it is not for everybody.
- riffraff 16y ago
  I guess the issue is on the definition of "stupid things". I love to watch a movie, and I enjoy a quiet lunch and talk over the coffee and dessert. I don't travel by bus, but when I used to commute I would spend the time reading. Things that are stupid relaxation to someone, are the actual goal of someone else. (yeah I can still cut on reading hn of course :)
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]

by city41 16y ago

bry 16y ago

"Economically, you can think of a startup as a way to compress your whole working life into a few years. Instead of working at a low intensity for forty years, you work as hard as you possibly can for four. This pays especially well in technology, where you earn a premium for working fast." - Paul Graham http://www.paulgraham.com/wealth.html http://www.paulgraham.com/wealth.html

mapleoin 16y ago
It stops making sense economically if you consider the high risk of failure though.
- mistermann 16y ago
  Exactly...one of my recent ventures was spending evenings and weekends for a few months building a prototype HR compensation system for a big company I had done consulting with for years, we had a very good relationship. All the requirements were met and the hard problems were solved (lots of UI work remained). When it came to decision time, they decided to develop in house instead of licensing my product for $50k. How much did they spend in house? $1 million plus (and counting). Plus, they missed their launch date so have to use the old solution for another year. I could have made the deadline easily. The point is, the risk of failure is not just that your product is not good enough, it is that the people that make the decisions are often, if not usually, simply not qualified to be serving in the positions they hold. Targeting individual consumers vs privately owned businesses vs publicly traded corporations are three entirely different situations. If I had to recommend one, I would target the privately owned business sector - there are less developers targeting this market (as it requires domain knowledge), and they actually care about ROI, whereas with a corporation, they are often more concerned about the appearance of ROI.
- kranner 16y ago
  It's really only failure if you learn nothing and never try again.
  - city41 16y ago
    It's failure if the energy spent on the project is more than the return. Sure you may learn something, but if all you learned was to become a better web developer at the expense of relationships, physical health, your bank account, etc, then perhaps it would have been better to just create a casual, hobby webapp for fun.
    - kranner 16y ago
      We're probably thinking of very different things. By learning I meant learning every aspect of launching a startup, including customer development, sales, marketing, SEO, etc. If your role in the startup was limited to programming, then I'd take a very jaundiced view of the state of affairs. And by no means would sacrificing relationships and health compensate for even this.
watty 16y ago
That sounds wonderful but unfortunately doesn't apply to everyone.

squidsoup 16y ago

I think health, particularly mental health is certainly a very important consideration. As much as I want to work on my side project, giving up time with my family and recreational time would probably have some fairly negative consequences long term. Sometimes it feels like entrepreneurship is really only viable for the young and single.

nsoonhui 16y ago
I concur. I got a friend who went into entrepreneur on the side ended up with a broken relationship, estrangement with family members and no life beyond computer.

megablast 16y ago

Ok, so there is nothing you can cut out from your life? Watching tv, lunches, buses? There are all times you could be putting to better use. And there is no magic balance. There is no magic allotment of time you have to spend relaxing to be mentally well. It is all about how hard you push yourself, and how slack you are. Nobody is saying cut out the important things, but cut out the stupid things. But hey, it is not for everybody.

riffraff 16y ago
I guess the issue is on the definition of "stupid things". I love to watch a movie, and I enjoy a quiet lunch and talk over the coffee and dessert. I don't travel by bus, but when I used to commute I would spend the time reading. Things that are stupid relaxation to someone, are the actual goal of someone else. (yeah I can still cut on reading hn of course :)

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]